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Halo: Infinity I: Arrival
Posted By: Frightener<AndrewNewman@carolina.rr.com>
Date: 8 March 2004, 11:46 PM
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Arrival
The ship's hull creaked as it descended through the thin atmosphere. From the outside of the giant ship, the Praetorian, one could see a figure standing at the bridge window. He wore heavy, olive-green armor. John, the Master Chief, couldn't believe it was happening all over again: He was going back to Halo. There were, of course, some differences between this visit and his last one. For one, he was going to a different Halo, which may or may not be a good thing, considering that this one might also hold Flood specimens. The Chief was also in the company of roughly thirty-two thousand other marines, along with a few hundred other Spartans.
Linda was the only other Spartan-II to survive the battle at Earth, while the other Spartans in the invasion force were Colonel Ackerson's Spartan-IIIs. John shuddered to look at them, not because of the many grotesque changes to their DNA sequence, which showed up clearly on the outside, no, John was disgusted because they all had been cloned from the original Spartan-IIs, and bore a stunning resemblance to the Spartan-IIs, John's friends. They wore heavier, more powerful, yet lighter armor than John and Linda, courtesy of Colonel Ackerson himself. This made John get a strange feeling he had never had before: Inferiority.
"Cortana," John's raspy voice choked on the aftertaste bronchial surfactant he had just removed from his mouth, after a few days' cryosleep. It had only been a few months back that the UNSC techs had added what might be called "flavor" to the vile-tasting slime. A somewhat mint-like taste remained in John's mouth. He walked to the lavatory, and washed his mouth out with the water from the sink. "Cortana!" he called again.
Cortana's lithe figure appeared on the pedestal in front of John, ever since the data from the original Halo had been taken out of her, she seemed more relaxed, very cheery, and her inherent quirkiness was amplified greatly. "What is it John?"
That took the Chief aback. He had almost never been called by his first name, except when talking to Doctor Halsey, which didn't happen a lot. "Are the other ships in the system? Did the others make it alright?" His growing nervousness of the Halo made him jumpy. The tens of thousands of marines on this mission were not just in the Praetorian; five other ships had been called on this mission.
"Of course," Cortana said cheerfully. "The Carriers Tyrant and Pacifica are in system and safe." Cortana concentrated for a second, "And the destroyers Messiah, Washington, and the Ascension are safe and in system." Cortana then got a shocked look, then smirked, "I'm. . . Also picking up a prowler, not registered on this mission, ONI's Pride." She sighed, "I guess it wouldn't be an important mission if the Office of Naval Intelligence wasn't along for the ride."
"Good," John's response confused Cortana. Unlike Doctor Halsey and the AI modeled after her, John respected the Office of Naval Intelligence. Their elite forces surpassed even the prestigious ODST force. The exploits of their spies were known to all. John figured it would be good to have ONI on their side in the upcoming conflict.
The Praetorian's Captain, Silas Archer, stood at his station. He was ready to open fire should any Covenant ships arrive in system. The UNSC battle fleet had upgraded their new ships. The Praetorian, a Supercarrier-class vessel, was the most powerful ship in the fleet. It had twenty MACs, a thousand autocannons, and even a few Plasma torpedo launchers the humans had plundered from Covenant ships. The Praetorian also carried eight Super-MAC orbitals that it had placed in orbit of the Halo. The orbitals would help hold off Covenant ships while the Humans were able to find a good location for a base and dig themselves in. The basic plan was for the Praetorian to do a quick run inside the ring's inner circle, pick out a good base location, and drop off its troops. The other ships would also drop off their soldiers and return to orbit to supplement the MAC orbitals. They would then try and destroy any Covenant ship that came in system. The troops on the ground would try and accomplish several objectives: 1. Find and secure a base; 2. Find, capture, and study the Monitor of this particular Halo; 3. Establish a lockdown facility and, during a combat situation, secure prisoners, a few of each Covenant race; and 4, use Cortana and the other AIs in the fleet to try and fix the ring so that it can fire more precisely: i.e. killing only the Covenant races, while sparing the humans.
So far, they had chosen a base location, the MAC orbitals had been set, and the ships were ready to disembark their soldiers. Chief spun on his heel, and walked off the bridge. He caught up with Linda, who was busy piling weapons into a sack, and they both went to the launch bay.
* * * *
Linda and John sat in the Raven heavy gunship. Ravens are the new generation of drop ships, slowly replacing the Pelican with their dual missile racks, two 107mm cannons, and eight autocannons bolted onto the side. It could hold 20 soldiers and still have plenty of room, and can store three LRVs or 2 heavy tanks on its tail boom. The Raven was also coated with the same Stealth material that the UNSC used on Longsword Interceptors. John nodded to Linda, and touched his finger to his faceplate, the Spartan-II's signal for a smile. The rest of the Raven was filled with a little over a dozen Spartan-IIIs. They all looked at Linda and John with both awe and contempt. The John? They would think, John-117? The one who single-handedly destroyed Halo 04? The one to first see a Covenant up close? They also began to think protectively of him and Linda. They were, after all, stronger, faster, and had a much higher endurance rate than the older Spartans. Between the duo of SPARTAN-IIs and the dozens of SPARTAN-IIIs, one man on board stood out. He was not a Spartan. He wore a black military dress suit, etched with Kevlar and carbon threads. He had at his side a new generation Plasma pistol. He also had a small pack on his hip that allowed him to stay invisible for hours at a time. He was with the Office of Naval Intelligence.
"John," Linda's voice was smooth and calm, "Are you ready? Do you think you can handle another encounter with the Flood? Or the Covenant?" She knew what the Chief had gone through. She was very protective of John as well, he was all she had left.
"There is nothing anyone can do to keep me from jumping into this fight, Linda, I'll be fine."
Linda sighed, she remembered her young days, growing up in Dublin, on Earth. Her father was a priest, one who held a lot of power in his province of Ireland. Linda vaguely tried to remember her father's teachings. One prayer stood out in her head, one she had not forgotten in the decades it had been since she had last seen her family. O Father, who art in heaven.
Covenant anti-aircraft fire, coming from the small base on the ring, rocked the Raven gunship. Out of the back entrance, Linda could see a Longsword escorting the formation take a hit and begin to belch smoke.
Hallowed be thy name.
The roar of an Elite, the screams of Grunts, and the cawing of Jackals could clearly be heard from the ground below. Thumps reverberated through the ship as it opened fire with its 107mm cannons. A hissing sound emanated from the sides of the ship as it unloaded its payload of missiles upon the small garrison below.
Thy kingdom come.
Linda took a deep breath, she could see the smoking craters of land behind the dropship. Twisted purple metal covered the ground where the Covenant instillation used to be. Dying screams of the aliens filled the ears of the Spartans, a Longsword pilot whose ship was crashing yelled through the COMM.
Thy will be done.
John couldn't help but think: he had fought in a thousand battles, over several decades. He had watched countless soldiers die fighting for the Human race. John wondered how many more good men and women would die for the UNSC. After all, Earth still remained, new shipyards had been quickly established and were cranking out more defenses should the Covenant come back.
On Earth, as it is in Heaven
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